


Sequence

by hanami_jedi



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Slow Burn Rey/Kylo Ren, alternate universe - figure skating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 15:13:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13684245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanami_jedi/pseuds/hanami_jedi
Summary: Rey and Kylo Ren figure skate for rival clubs training in the same ice rink. Both feel stagnant in their competitive careers, forever missing the podium by a hair, until a mysterious connection offers the rivals a new path to success.





	Sequence

**Author's Note:**

> I'm both a figure skater and a Reylo fan, so there was only one logical thing to do with my spare time: write a figure skating Reylo AU, complete with fluff and Force bonds galore. Because I skate in the UK, I'm super familiar with how the UK skating system works, and I wanted to make this AU as close to the (often not very glamorous) reality of being a competitive figure skater, so I decided it'd be best to set it in the UK. I will, however, be doing my best to use US English!  
> Anyway, please enjoy! Future chapters will be longer - chapter one was initially much longer, but it read with a natural chapter break that I decided to stick with.

Rey’s feet are _aching_. Her pair of Edea Ice Fly boots are so worn down that they buckle when she skates, and jumping has become less about landing smoothly and more about landing without breaking an ankle; she needs new ones, desperately, but her sponsorship money isn’t due till the end of the month. She glides to the exit of the ice dispiritedly, stepping off and limping to the nearest bench, onto which she collapses with a groan.

‘Off day?’ a familiar voice asks from behind her. Rey twists round to see Finn, her closest friend, standing in his (new and very much _not_ worn down) skates, white plastic guards protecting the blades.

Rey shakes her head and offers him a half-hearted smile. ‘My skates are dead,’ she says, lifting a foot to show him. ‘The support’s gone in the ankles.’

Her friend moves to sit down beside her. He taps his left boot against her right one sympathetically and shrugs. ‘They’re, what, two years old? I think you can justify buying new ones. This is what your sponsorship is for.’

The sponsorship deal had popped up about eight months ago, when Rey had started competing internationally. A local health foods business had approached her and promised monthly payments if she would advertise them to her digital population of figure skaters who followed her Instagram account. The business already sponsored a handful of skaters – including Finn – from both Rey’s club and the rival club, who trained at the same ice rink on alternating days. They didn’t care they were supporting opposing clubs, and frequently requested all their sponsored skaters take a group picture to promote the brand; it was all fake smiles and cheerful captions written as the rival teams lied through their teeth about how lucky they were to skate together.

‘My short programme dress wiped out my bank account; I won’t have enough till they pay again,’ Rey explains with a despondent sigh.

‘Okay, well, practise choreography. Better than nothing, right?’

* * *

 

Kylo Ren had been skating since he was Ben Solo. His friends – acquaintances, rather – joked that when he abandoned his parents’ figure skating club to join their rival one, he’d turned to the Dark Side of the Force. Half his competitive team is Star Wars-obsessed. Kylo mostly rolls his eyes at it, but it was responsible for his nickname – after the mysterious Knights of Ren, Hux claims, but Kylo honestly doesn’t have a clue what he’s on about – and despite shrugging off the franchise as some dumb sci-fi money-maker, he _does_ kind of like the name.

Ren rarely sees his parents these days. He lives with Hux and Phasma in a cheap apartment they rent with the sponsorship money from that insufferable health food business, and never trains at the same time as the other club. The rivalry is a mess, he knows, but the First Order (another Star Wars nickname coined by Hux) is stronger than his parents’ team has ever been. Snoke is a ruthless coach, but his reputation for getting skaters to the top is infallible.

It’s a Saturday morning, when the ice time is split between the Resistance Club (yet _another_ of Hux’s names) and the First Order. The Resistance gets the rink from 7am to 8:45am, then is passed over to Ren’s team from 9:15am to 11am. The half-hour gap is there for the Zamboni to resurface the ice, but more importantly means the rivals can almost entirely avoid meeting.

_Almost_.

Today when Kylo saunters in and dumps his case on a bench, he notices a Resistance skater hurriedly sliding support bandages onto both of her ankles as the First Order floods in. He recognises her as Rey, one of the other sponsorship skaters who he’s spoken to maybe twice when they’ve been forced together to take a group photo, dripping with staged friendship. He doesn’t understand the damn group photos; the internet knows full well about the rivalry between the clubs.

Rey keeps her eyes downcast as she finishes bandaging her feet, fingers fumbling in her rush to get out of what has become enemy territory. Kylo’s seen her compete, and the kid’s good, but she’s wasting her potential. The Resistance has taken her to international competition, but doesn’t have the momentum to put her on the podium. But the podium at any competition of Rey’s level belongs to Phasma. He’d rather keep it that way; a medal for one of his roommates was money that payed for rent when the sponsors didn’t cut it.

‘Ren, stop staring at the Resistance _Rat_ ,’ Hux hisses, spitting out the words like venom, and Kylo is kicked from his reverie. Rey freezes, having heard the insult, before grabbing her things and making for the exit, one shoelace still untied.

Kylo watches as she casts a glance over her shoulder to make sure she left no belongings behind, and for a split-second, her eyes catch his. They both look away almost immediately, and Rey’s out the door less than a heartbeat later.

Beside him, Hux and Phasma exchange a selection of jokes as Rey’s expense. Ren sits down and slides into his skates, but can’t quite bring himself to get involved.


End file.
